Pike & Shotte test

After procrastinating for a good 6 months, I've decided to start a long-term English Civil War project, using Pike & Shotte. I think I want to do something with Hopton and Waller, and maybe have a decent stab at a historically accurate Battle of Lansdown (which is just down the road from me). I'm not used to bringing research and actual knowledge to my wargaming, so we'll see how that goes.

These are tests for some Royalist cavalry, and Hopton's regiment of foot. Warlord Games are having a third-off sale on their basic ECW Infantry and Cavalry regiments, so I now have enough plastic to keep me going for a long time.

Sword and Spear Demo

Our club put on a demo at the Barn's craft fair. We did a bit of a display and ran a game of Sword and Spear.

The game was a two vs two thing, which went pretty well. The Saracens lost a load of their horse archers on their right flank, but in a way they did their job coz their heavy cavalry came through, unscathed and ripped the flank apart.

It was an interesting result in that the Crusaders won 29 - 21 in Army Points. But looking at the table you could see the Saracens were probably better placed. So, I added up the build points left on the table and it came to 177 - 120 in the Saracens' favour, pretty much the exact opposite result.

It felt a bit wrong, and I might have a think about working out how to end S&S games in future, coz a few times I have felt the game has ended too early, and this time the result definitely didn't reflect what was happening on the pitch.

Also note the excellent, thematic dice bag, which I got from saddlegoose: http://glenbrookgames.co.uk.websitebuilder.prositehosting.co.uk/saddle-goose

  

 

Welsh Javelin Cavalry

I've started a Strathclyde Welsh warband for Saga. They are all horse and javelins. I used the Gripping Beast Plastic Dark Age Cavalry set. But, I'm thinking I can get some use out of them with my 12th Century English army in Sword and Spear, so I ditched the Roman style helmets, and gave them a few more Norman style ones. I also added some cloaks from the Fireforge crusader boxes.

I quite liked the Dark Age Cavalry box, but the horse halves are not interchangeable, so you don't get that variety of poses. I am very pleased with the variety of poses you get with the riders, though. Also, I think the cloaks add a bit of dynamism that they were lacking.

Saga 2 Anglo-Danes vs Normans

Played a couple of games of new Saga. I like it a lot, and seems a bit more streamlined and elegant than the previous version. I forgot to take any photos during this game, which is usually the sign of a good game.

Suffice it to say that the Normans piled forward recklessly and the Anglos managed to stem the tide with annoying passive-aggressive abilities. It all ended in ignominy for the Normans when their warlord got shot to death by Anglo peasant archers.